The latest incident of piracy occurred on the day a global maritime watchdog reported that piracy on the world's seas reached a five-year low in 2012.

But the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), an arm of the International Chamber of Commerce, said in the global piracy report released on Wednesday that East and West Africa remain the worst hit areas, with half of all the attacks in 2012.

The first vessel hijacking off the coast of Ivory Coast was recorded in October last year, when a panamax product tanker was seized by suspected Nigerian pirates off Abidjan. This shows the increased range of Nigerian pirates, the report had warned.